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ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
YEAR-OVER-YEAR CRASH REPORT · CHICAGO, IL · MARCH 2026
Purpose: Machine-readable JSON endpoint for AI agents, LLMs, researchers, and programmatic consumers. Returns all underlying crash data and AI-generated commentary without HTML.
Authentication: None required. Public endpoint.
GET: https://thatcarhitme.com/api/crash-data/reports/data/illinois/chicago/march-2026-report
Monthly Traffic Safety Analysis
8,673 CRASHES IN
CHICAGO, IL
MARCH 2026
Total crashes in March 2026 decreased by 0.8% year-over-year, from 8739 to 8673. Fatalities experienced a more significant reduction, dropping by 33.3% from 9 to 6. Total injuries also saw a slight decrease of 1.0%, from 1942 to 1923.
8,673
▼ -0.8%was 8,739
Total Crash Events
6
▼ -33.3%was 9
Persons Killed
1,923
▼ -1.0%was 1,942
Persons Injured
2,621
▼ -3.9%was 2,728
Hit-and-Run Crashes
Note: "Persons Killed" (6) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (6) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities. 25 crashes with unreported severity are not shown in the severity breakdown.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records
Trend Summary
The overall trend indicates a slight decrease in total crashes, with a 0.8% reduction from 8739 to 8673 crashes year-over-year. Fatalities saw a more substantial decline, decreasing by 33.3% from 9 to 6. This suggests an overall improvement in safety metrics for the period.
2,621
Hit-and-Run Crashes — March 2026
▼ -3.9% vs prior (2,728)
The number of hit-and-run crashes decreased by 107, from 2728 in the prior period to 2621 in the current period, representing a 3.9% reduction. The hit-and-run rate also decreased by 1.0 percentage point, from 31.2% to 30.2%. This indicates a downward trend in hit-and-run incidents.
Vulnerable Road User Casualties
2
Pedestrians Killed
0
Cyclists Killed
4
Motorists Killed
0
Other Killed
246
Pedestrians Injured
90
Cyclists Injured
1,583
Motorists Injured
4
Other Injured
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)
When Crashes Happen
The peak day for crashes shifted from Friday in the prior period (1423 crashes) to Monday in the current period (1479 crashes). Monday crashes increased by 184 year-over-year, while Friday crashes decreased by 119. The peak hour remained 4 p.m. in both periods, though the count of crashes at this hour decreased from 743 to 697.
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)
Crash Severity Breakdown
Total fatalities decreased by 33.3%, from 9 in the prior period to 6 in the current period. The fatal crash rate also decreased from 0.1% to 0.07%. Overall, total injuries saw a slight decrease of 1.0%, from 1942 to 1923.
Outcome by Severity (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · KABCO injury classification scale
Severity Distribution (Crash Events)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Most severe injury per crash record
Top Contributing Factors
"FAILING TO YIELD RIGHT-OF-WAY" increased by 106 counts (10.6%) to 1105, becoming the leading contributing factor. "FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY" decreased by 23 counts (-3.0%) to 750, and "IMPROPER OVERTAKING/PASSING" decreased by 10 counts (-2.1%) to 456. Notably, crashes attributed to "WEATHER" increased significantly by 61 counts (113.0%), from 54 to 115.
Officer-Reported Primary Contributing Cause
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Officer-reported primary contributory cause per crash
Road & Environmental Conditions
Crashes occurring in "CLEAR" weather decreased by 240, while crashes in "SNOW" conditions increased by 103, from 163 to 266. Crashes on "DRY" road surfaces decreased by 274, but those on "SNOW OR SLUSH" surfaces increased by 101, from 76 to 177, and "ICE" conditions saw an increase of 35 crashes, from 6 to 41. Crashes occurring in "DARKNESS, LIGHTED ROAD" increased by 109, while those in "DAYLIGHT" decreased by 170.
Weather
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Weather condition at time of crash
Lighting
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Lighting condition field
Road Surface
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Road surface condition field
Vehicles & Demographics
The total number of vehicles involved decreased slightly from 17772 to 17624. Among vehicle makes, TOYOTA remained the most frequently involved, despite a minor decrease of 6 vehicles. HONDA saw an increase of 71 vehicles involved, while CHEVROLET and FORD decreased by 76 and 106 vehicles, respectively. Regarding persons involved, the 26-34 age group saw an increase of 120 persons involved, while the 0-15 age group experienced a decrease of 86 persons.
Top Vehicle Makes (17,624 vehicles)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Vehicle unit records
5,374 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart. Age=0 in Chicago records is a sentinel for unknown/unrecorded age (not infants) and is grouped with nulls.
Sex Distribution (18,515 persons with recorded sex)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events
Speed Limit Zones
Crashes in the 30 mph speed zone increased by 57, from 6518 to 6575, while fatalities in this zone decreased from 7 to 5. The 20 mph speed zone saw an increase of 44 crashes, from 368 to 412, and recorded 1 fatal crash in the current period compared to 0 in the prior period. Fatal crashes at 10 mph and 35 mph, present in the prior period, were not observed in the current period.
Fatal crashes by zone: 20 mph: 1 of 412 (0.243%) · 30 mph: 5 of 6,575 (0.076%)
Source: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata Open Data · 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31 · Posted speed limit at crash location
Data Sources & Methodology
Primary Data Source
All crash data in this report is sourced from Chicago Traffic Crashes, accessed programmatically via the Socrata Open Data API (SODA). This dataset contains official police-reported motor vehicle traffic crash records maintained by the reporting jurisdiction's law enforcement agency. Records are published to the open data portal by the municipality and are subject to the portal's terms of use.
Data Retrieval
- Access method: Socrata Open Data API (SoQL queries)
- Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
- Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
- Date filter applied: 2026-03-01 through 2026-03-31
- Report generated: September 1, 2026
Data Coverage
- Reporting period: 2026-03-01 through 2026-03-31 (31 days)
- Geographic scope: Chicago, IL
- Total crash records analyzed: 8,673
- Total persons involved: 18,871
- Total vehicles involved: 17,624
Analytical Methodology
- Severity classification: Uses the KABCO injury scale (K=Fatal, A=Incapacitating injury, B=Non-incapacitating injury, C=Possible injury, O=No injury/property damage only), the standard classification in U.S. Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). Severity is assigned per crash event based on the most severe injury in that crash. A single fatal crash (K) may involve multiple fatalities; therefore the "Persons Killed" count in the headline KPIs may differ from the "Fatal" crash count in the severity breakdown.
- Contributing factors: Reflect the officer-determined primary contributory cause recorded at the time of the crash report. These are preliminary determinations and may not reflect final investigation findings.
- Hit-and-run classification: Based on the hit-and-run indicator field in the official crash report, as determined by the responding officer at the scene.
- Temporal analysis: Day-of-week and hour-of-day distributions are computed from the crash date/time timestamp in each record.
- Demographics: Age and sex distributions are drawn from person-level records linked to each crash event. A single crash may involve multiple persons.
- Vehicle data: Make information is drawn from vehicle unit records linked to each crash event.
- AI commentary: Narrative sections are generated by Google Gemini (large language model) based on the structured data. Commentary is descriptive, not predictive, and should not be interpreted as expert opinion.
Limitations & Disclaimers
- Only crashes reported to and documented by law enforcement are included. Minor incidents, unreported crashes, and near-misses are not captured in this dataset.
- Data reflects conditions at the time of the initial police report and may be subject to subsequent corrections, reclassifications, or supplements by the reporting agency.
- Open data portal records may experience a publication lag - recently occurring crashes may not yet appear in the dataset at the time of report generation.
- AI-generated commentary is produced by a large language model and is intended to highlight patterns in the data. It does not constitute legal, medical, or professional analysis.
- Percentages are calculated from reported data and are subject to rounding.
Non-Affiliation Disclosure
This report is produced independently by ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with any law enforcement agency, municipal government, state department of transportation, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data is sourced from publicly available government open data portals.
Data License
The underlying crash data is provided under the municipality's Open Data Terms of Use and is made available to the public for unrestricted use. This analysis and report is © 2026 Injuria.ai and may be cited with attribution using the suggested citation below.
Corrections & Feedback
If you believe any data in this report is inaccurate or have questions about our methodology, please contact: data@injuria.ai. We are committed to accuracy and will issue corrections promptly.
Suggested Citation
ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). "Chicago, IL Crash Intelligence Report: March 2026." Published September 1, 2026. Reporting period: 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31. Data source: Chicago Traffic Crashes, Socrata Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/illinois/chicago/march-2026-report
About the Publisher
ThatCarHitMe.com is a crash data intelligence platform developed by Injuria.ai, a legal technology company specializing in traffic safety analytics. We aggregate and analyze publicly available government crash data to produce structured intelligence reports for communities, researchers, journalists, and legal professionals. Our reports combine programmatic data retrieval from official open data portals with AI-assisted narrative analysis.
Questions about this report's data or methodology: data@injuria.ai
ThatCarHitMe.com · An Injuria.ai Company
ThatCarHitMe.com
An Injuria.ai Company
Crash Data Intelligence
Data: Chicago Traffic Crashes · Socrata
Period: 2026-03-01 – 2026-03-31
Generated: September 1, 2026 · All rights reserved
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